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Topic: Multiplayer, from the ground up. (Read 2031 times)

So, let's say a player is ready to go online. To start with, how should multiplayer be handled?1. Should hosting a game broadcast said game to a given master server?2. What should be serverside and what should be clientside?3. What vehicles should a player have access to? Should the choice in vehicles be dependent on their singleplayer progression? What about customization?4. If the host has a file the client does not have, what should be done? If the host is instructed to send the client a copy of the file, should there be a size limit? 4.a. What if a client brings a file that the host doesn't have? Should it be uploaded to the host?4.b. What if a client brings a file that neither the host nor the other clients have?4.c. What about conflicting files?4.d. Should the server be able to put limits on custom cars, i.e. HP limits, weight limits, size limits? What about power-to-weight?4.e. Should custom cars be forced to have multiple LODs to accommodate players with slower computers? Should there be a way to forcibly reduce all car graphics on slower computers to ensure a good framerate? 5. What should the GUI look like?6. Would it be possible to allow a chat message to be typed while driving with a joystick or similar peripheral, assuming that all controls are mapped to said peripheral?7. Should kicking, banning, etc. be voted upon if no moderator or admin is present?8. What punishments not covered in 7 should be available? Forcing a specific color set on the car of a rule-breaking player? 9. What gamemodes should be available? 10. What about custom addons, scripts, gamemodes, etc?10.a. What client addons should and should not be allowed?

1. don't know yet. maybe both hosted LAN/P2P and dedicated servers?2. might be mostly handled/dictaded on the game engine, assuming it support for such things.3. it should be dictated by the single player progression. should only have access to cars they own.***4.a.b. files should automatically swapped between players who don't have them. most modern games do this.4.c. it should be smart enough to have different name or have rules/exceptions to handle the situation.4.d. this should/could be up the to the host/op, when the set up the event/race.4.e that depends if we have LODs, if we do all cars in game should have them.

*** Not sure if multi player will have addon 3rd party cars. this could be up to host/op. if ever would be possible for addon cars to be multi player, they would have to apply to the game's car standards. if in game cars have LODs addon cars have to have LODs etc etc.

5. good question. this would fall under pre production. this should/could be part of the next development phase if we could recruit artists to make concepts.

6. SURE! good luck with that though. most people use Team Speak and Ventrillo thuogh. I would be surprised if have some sort of audio/voip in multiplayer as well.

7. idk, good question. maybe it could vary from server to server or host/op to host/op? i'm not to sure.

8. idk. that's an interesting and good suggestion, maybe that would be a good idea for players on probation.

9. all sorts of game modes. idk specifically. should have all the single player racing modes available for sure. though it gave me an interesting idea to say the least. what if we could have build offs? who can build the engine the fastest?

10. look at "***" for part of the answer10.a. idk but, i'm sure there would have to be limit/rule to keep from cheating?

6. I wasn't talking about voice chat, I mostly meant controller support that would simultaneously allow joystick and keyboard support; most GOOD modern games do this. Primary example (if it wasn't a porting disaster): GTA4.

8. Maybe we could label players on probation? If cars have people inside them, maybe have a guy in an orange prison jumpsuit behind the wheel?

10. I meant more server-side stuff. Just take a look at any decent GTA multiplayer server or almost any TF2 server.

10.a. I was thinking more along the lines of "here's what a script may and may not affect"; if anything is out of place about a script, it should be forcibly disabled. I was thinking that this would be dependent on the server operator (defaulting on "you can mod the HUD and map keys, but nothing gameplay-changing), with more extreme server ops, I bet even HUD modding would be off-limits. On the other hand, with lenient ops, I suspect cheating would be par for the course. Flying cars, invincibility, etc.

As for specific games, I have a few ideas.1. Chicken Racing: A race involving a long, skinny course and two checkpoints, A and B. Each player is spawned either at A or B, and set free upon the course; a player that spawns at A must go to B and then return; a player that spawns at B must go to A and then return. Collisions are allowed, and damage should ideally be on. Can be team-based!2. Hide and Go Seek: Except that the seekers have highly limited vision (fog?) and the hiders have enhanced vision. A point is only scored on a hider when a collision is made. Can be team-based???3. Sardines: Based somewhat on the old reverse-hide-and-seek game*, exactly one player (a hider) is tasked with avoiding the other players (seekers), though hiding in and of itself is not necessary; contact between a hider and a seeker turns the seeker into a hider. Hiders gain points by staying away from seekers, though the flow of points slows down and stops depending on the range to the nearest seeker (maybe the hiders have slightly better visibility than the seekers?). Additionally, each hider should be somehow bound to their teammates, preventing hiders from running off...Or maybe there should be an incentive to stick together? Anyway, straggling hiders should probably become seekers or be removed from the game somehow (though there SHOULD be a bigger incentive to just stick together...). 4. Budget Racer: Tournament racing mode. Each player is supplied a miniscule amount of cash and taken to a junkyard, where they scrape together car parts. A time limit is declared, and each player is paired off with an opponent. If a player wins a race, then they are awarded all of their opponent's possessions. If a player looses, then they can enjoy their walk back to the grandstands.5. About that engine build-off idea: Maybe each action requires a sequence of randomized button presses? Also: Maybe the idea could be extended to entire cars, and the cars raced, with the performance of each car dependent on the number of correct keystrokes?6. Drift Racing: Drift races, but judged on a COMBINATION of position and points earned during the race, so that even a last-place trophy can be balanced out with amazing drifting. The number of points gained for each section should be dependent on the time taken to get through the section, to prevent anyone from doing donuts in place or repeatedly backtracking to gain more points than a first- or second-place prize. 7. Something physics-based, like that one ski jump game you always see remade into flash games.8. Something else team-based.

*Long story short, the game begins with exactly one hider and everyone else seeking the hider; if a seeker finds the hider, then they too become a hider, with all hiders staying in the same hiding spot. The game continues until the last seeker finds the hiders.